It's All in a Day's Work!
by The Samurai Squirrel
Summary: Dragon Quest VIII Fan Fiction Follow our hero and his allies on an interesting journey through the Cavern of Slimes to help defeat a most evil dragon that is causing a crisis in the slime world. Will they be able to vanquish this nasty lizard?


Waking from a most pleasant slumber, our brave hero sees Jessica tapping him forcefully on the shoulder, instructing him "to move his lazy bones." With a grunt and a groan, he tries to ward off her scolding so he can sleep in for just a few more minutes.

"If you don't get your arse out of this sleeping bag this second, I'll send a slime down that crummy snoring mouth of yers!" Jessica shouted into his ear.

One more final grumble, and our hero, Ryan, arose and shook his head. Yawning, he reached for his favorite bright orange bandana and ties it tightly around his hair. As hero, he cannot go around with dust in his hair, so he must keep it covered at all times, except when sleeping. Why not sleeping you ask? Doesn't everyone know that the friction from the hair to the bandana can mess up precious hair-dos that only the best of heroes can gel up? That's what Ryan thought, and he thought it was a palpable reason to take it off at night. Normally, however, he would spend an hour in front of the Mirror of Ra and make sure that every little last hair was indeed in place, apply some of his non-toxic babble gel, and get it to perfection, but he figured with the constant ranting of his comrade Jessica, she wouldn't allow such a thing today.

After several minutes of gathering the needed supplies in order to face the outside world of the tent, the hero finally stepped out into the fresh new sun. He squinted at the extreme change of light, for the tent was made of dragon hide that was great at blocking unwanted ultraviolet rays. He sluggishly began to pull the poles of the tent. Little Trode was readying the wagon for use, Jessica was, as usual, squabbling with Angelo, and Yangus was rounding up the miscellaneous items around the campsite that Jessica was failing to do. It did no good to tell her what to do, as she felt like she was a lady and a first-rate magician and needed not to do any kind of physical labor whatsoever. In actuality, she was pain in the rear and they only kept her for a couple of needlessly complex reasons. First off, her magic definitely came in handy in sticky situations. She knew far more than that of Ryan, who only seemed to know the basics. And second, well, Ryan kind of liked her.

Indeed, Yangus and Angelo found that rather hard to believe, especially with all of the arguing that they did do, but it was true. Ryan didn't know exactly why these feelings were there He often wondered if Jessica secretly felt the same about him. In a soft spot in his heart, Ryan felt that Jessica really had no other place to be, other then with them. She seemed lonely in her hometown and that's why they Ryan felt it was a necessity to take her with them.

Finally, the work was finished, with the tent and all of the necessary supplies loaded. Jessica delicately climbed unto the wagon with the rest of the party behind her.

"Today, it's off to the Cavern of Slimes. See, when I was at the local inn, I heard that there was a mean old dragon that was making a fuss for the slime community. You know, we can't have that because heroes all around could be in trouble if they were all done in. The Slimes, as you know, harvest the medicinal herbs such as Full Moon Herbs and Antidotes for the item shops around. They even go to the trouble of plucking the wings off of Wyverns to allow us to transport places we've been. Just think of the disastrous results that would happen if WE had to go pluck our own Wyvern wings!" King Trode exclaimed. He was usually the one to gather most of the knowledge for the group as he had great people skills. There was something just charming about him and many young girls thought of him as not scary, but rather cute. Sure, they stoned him in that one town, but as they moved among the world, people were much more open-minded.

"'Aye! We must protect them slimes. They're miiiiigty important to us adventurers!" Yangus bellowed in his usual loud tone.

"Yangus! Have you been drinking again?" Jessica commented loudly. "Oh my drackys, your breath REAKS of ale! If only there was a spell for soberness..."

"Oh go stew your toadstools on someone else!" Yangus replied angrily. "I do what I do, when I want to do it! That's the TRUE way o' livin'! Right, Ryan?"

Ryan nodded his head in agreement which was quickly followed with a vicious thump to the head from Jessica.

"That's enough, Jessica. We needn't want fellow travelers along this road to believe we are barbarians. Really now, think before you act!" With that, Angelo sat up straight and looked out. The wagon was beginning to come to a halt as they had finally arrived to their destination--the Cavern of Slimes.

It looked to be like any other cave. It was located on the side of Mt. Chimera (infamous for having a large populace of chimeras, lipsies, and powerful magicians at its peak) and it was basically just a hole in the side of the mountain. The only exception to its normality was the fact that two great pedestals on each side of the entry way. Each pedestal contained a small shiny slime statue. Both slimes had huge smiles upon their faces. However, as the adventurers began to climb out of the wagon and walk towards the entrance, both slimes jumped off and hopped in the cave! They weren't statues at all, but rather Metal Slimes!

"Cowards..." Yangus laughed. "Them buggers don't last two seconds when they sense trouble. They're probably going to warn the elders that they have visitors. That is, unless they don't get eaten by the dragon first!"

With caution, our brave adventuring team approached the entrance to the notorious Cavern of Slimes. Ryan lit a torch, even though the cavern had somewhat ample lighting because our hero secretly had a fear of the dark. See, when he was a child had a dreadful encounter with some drackies that resulted in many scratches and his precious hair being covered with bat poo.

Ryan began to lead the way into the slime world. Angelo, always prepared to meet his enemies in a notorious duel, drew his sword. Jessica, on the other hand, stayed the same with hands to her side, but with her eyes ever-watching. As the party knew, she wouldn't get close to the enemy unless she was absolutely needed in the front line. In said case, she would pull out her whip and create some mean scars on some unsuspecting foes.

Yangus, always with his trusty magical mallet, always was ready to smash anything that made the slightest movement. The only problem with this trait, while useful in combat, is that often times a fellow comrade would stumble over a rock. Said rock would move a couple inches and in that time, instinct would tell him to pound. However, it would always be on an ally's foot, causing much pain and a much needed 'Mediheal' as Yangus can pack quite a punch.

King Trode would always stay back to tend to the wagon. On occasions, he would also take care of the hero's mouse, especially when Ryan was on extra-dangerous missions. How King Trode loved to play with that mouse, but oh would it tickle his scaly skin when it decided to climb down his shirt to explore. Even though the mouse did know better as it shared much more knowledge than the common rodent, it was an essence of its instinct that it simply could not ignore. I guess Ryan always assumed that was the mouse's weakness. That and it loved to bite Jessica's rear when she was sitting. Ryan always obtained a wonderful laugh whenever that happened.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. Something was in the bit of grass in front of the explorers in the cave! All they could see was the faint light from Ryan's torch and the faint light ahead in the cavern.

"Be ready for some demon crushin'!" Yangus whispered excitedly with mallet ready to go at any moment.

Ryan grabbed his trusty boomerang, Jessica her spell book of fires, and Angelo with his blade in hand.

Crunch, crunch, boing, boing, BOING!

"What the--?" Yangus snorted.

Right into the light, came a little blue blob. It was a little slime.

"Pwease, don't huwt me! I'm a good swime!"

"Don't worry little fellah, we won't hurt you..." Jessica said as she stepped up to the creature. It was fairly tiny, so it definitely could not have been fully grown. Something about its voice that held sincerity that led the heroes to believe that they just couldn't hurt the slime. Besides, injuring one could definitely mean serious trouble for them. However, they need to be extra cautious regardless for some slimes wish to hunt down humans, even though the Slime and Human Treaty had been signed and enforced by the Slime Knight army.

"Tell me..." Jessica continued. "What's a little slime like you out here where it's dangerous?"

"Well, you see... I wanted to impwess my she-swime fwiend Mawibel by twying to defeat the mean dwagon. But... I got scawed and wanted to tuwn back, but I wondewed to faw fwom the villwage and found myself hewe."

"In other words," Angelo commented. "You're lost."

"Wight-o." The small slime began to drip little turquoise tears unto the dark earth. Each splash created a little bubble, like a babble and then instantly faded into steam and created a smell of fresh slime jelly. Slime jelly is definitely very delicious, but it is now an illegal good, especially after the Slime and Human Treaty. However, every adventurer loves to keep a jar on hand, especially after slaughtering some wild untame slimes who viciously attack you. As Yangus says, "There's nothing better than eating your enemy after a hard battle!" Of course, his fellow allies did not trust him that much for the next two weeks after hearing that, but that story is for another Imperial Scroll.

After the little diversion, our heroes found a sign that lead them towards the village. The sign was useless for the little slime as he couldn't read.

Onward they went, and for the next fifteen minutes, everything was quiet. Too quiet. All they saw were endless jagged rocks on the ceiling and algae growing on the stones from the murky puddles. Drips from falling water were all they heard. When they reached the village however, something was amiss.

ROOOOAR!

"There's no mistaking it... that's the roar of a green dragon!" Jessica hollered. "It looks like it was tired of playing games and was ready for his prize! Let's kill this oversized lizard now before it causes more trouble!" With that she thrust her book open and began to already chant the needed spells for battle, even before they had even officially engaged the enemy.

Quickly turning a corner, our brave adventurers saw a terrible sight. A giant dragon in the town square was stepping on slimes right and left, like they were nothing more than mere bubbles. Each one made a distinct popping noise like balloons.

"Kafrizzle!" Jessica hollered already thrusting a spell towards the lizard. A large flame shot from her hands and set the tail ablaze! It turned fast, but before it could blink, Angelo thrust his mighty sword into its tough body. Known for cutting even the toughest surfaces, his blade went through like butter and green dragon blood dripped onto the earth, mixing in with the various colors of blue on the slime-popped floor.

With a quick heave, Ryan sets lose his boomerang and shot the dragon right in the eye! Yangus, on other hand, smashed one of its scales into an oblivion. Furious, the dragon shot around and breathed a destructive flame!

Dodging by just the tip of their nose hairs, the team moved out jumped out the way with only minimal HP taken! This was war.

STOMP, STOMP, STOMP as the dragon walked towards them.

"This bugger's harder than I thought..." Yangus hollered. "We'll give him what he deserves!" Just as he said that, he went back for more scale shattering.

Jessica while tending to the wounds to Ryan as he threw the boomerang again and again ferociously, kept the spells ablaze, each with newfound fury!

Finally, after a most hard-fought battle, Angelo placed the final blow right into the chest of the green dragon, and it fell over silent.

"Finally... we did 'im... in!" Yangus panted.

Indeed, our heroes had once again saved the day! As soon as the coast was clear, the slime elder marched out with a congratulations.

The elder was basically like an elderly blue slime only with arms. He bore a large straggly gray beard and had a very large walking staff that appeared to work as a wand when needed. His slime was definitely very wrinkled and looked like crushed jelly in a big glob.

"I must thank Ryan and his friends for this glorious deed! We can now finally begin the harvesting of our herbs again! To reward you guys, here are 5,000 gold pieces and a bag of medical herbs. Because of this incident, our Full Moon Herbs were all burned to a crisp, but you needn't worry. A full moon should be in within the next couple of days, so if we plant the bulbs very soon, they can begin proper growth. Thanks again! Now, let's celebrate!" The Elder Slime said.

With that, the Slime Knight Army began to carry off the dragon's carcass and begin the process of grinding the skin and such. Dragons make great fertilizer for herbs! Every good slime knows that!

All through the day, the heroes had fresh ale and a great time with the slimes. Angelo discussed Slime Politics and the position of the new law in the human world banning the use of slime urine for glue. And all was well.

However, as all festivities must come to an end, the heroes packed up their equipment and began to set out onto another great journey. It's all in a day's work!


End file.
